Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Genocidin' with Biden

 

Genocidin' With Biden

It's a mixed bag of stories in the headlines this week--Covid-19 is still decimating Americans, Palestinians are dying, Cops are murdering Americans of color when they can get away with it--which is most of the time.  There's one thread that ties these disparate stories together: Joe Biden. The man who could do much to ease the suffering, prevent the deaths of many at home and worldwide, but also the same man who boldly proclaimed during his campaign that "nothing will fundamentally change" and meant it. 

The US gives $3.8 billion a year to the apartheid state of Israel and turns a blind eye whenever they discriminate against or actively kill Palestinians. Biden proposes a $735 million weapons sale to Israel, a sale that will only provide more death and destruction. He could put a stop to this genocidal madness in the Middle East by simply cutting off  all US money and weapons flooding into Israel, but he... doesn't. He just allows the genocide to continue.

It's business as usual as America opens up from the Covid-19 lockdowns and governors tell folks they can ditch the masks. No state is waiting to open until they've reached the 70% of the population vaccinated necessary to develop herd immunity. Consequently, many more Americans will get sick and die from Covid because the capitalists want the "essential" workers back slaving away in the salt mines of underpaid work. They want maskless, mindless consumers to "Buy, buy, buy!" until they drop over dead. 

We may be "essential," but obviously we're also quite expendable.

State Senator Teresa Fedor addresses a group on Ohio's M4A legislation.

It doesn't have to be this way. There could be strong leadership from the White House to keep the masking laws in place until the percentage of Covid-19 cases has dropped nationwide and the 70%+ vaccinated populace number reached. The president could take a strong stand made against the for-profit health care industry. With a stroke of a pen, the president could enact Medicare for All, ending the deathly disparity of health outcomes. 

But Joe Biden has been quoted as saying he'd veto any Medicare for All bill that came across his desk. It's okay by him if Americans go bankrupt from medical debts or just plain avoid seeing a doctor when they're sick because they can't afford to even with private health insurance coverage. The death toll is free to keep rising...600,000 dead from Covid-19 and counting.

And, of course, Joe "I wrote the Crime Bill" Biden is all for over-funding our corrupt and violent police forces. The more people arrested, the more he can fill his campaign donors' for-profit prisons with cheap slave labor. It's just a side benefit that it's mostly people of color who wind up on the receiving end of this genocidal behavior. Enough said.

We're living--or is it dying?--in a time and country where average people's lives are cheap and only billionaires have the right to survive and thrive. 

Yeah, "I'm genocidin' with Biden" says it all.

And now, a song parody that sums up nicely the neoliberal outlook of the Blue MAGA cultists. 

A Broken Halle-Blue-ya!

(with apologies to Leonard Cohen)

by Coast Watcher


They say Joe Biden’s such a turd.

A man who’ll never keep his word.

But that should come as no surprise to ya.

It goes like this, the budget shift, the watered-down Covid relief,

and the big landlords cried out Hallelujah!


Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

 

Big Business must be fed, although there’s over a million dead,

But there’s no more relief cash for you, screw ya!

College debt will have to stand, no Medicare for all the land,

And the brunch-eaters cry out Hallelujah!


Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!


To Biden, genocide’s not harsh, and DC’s still that fetid marsh,

But Vote Blue no matter who has fooled ya!

See AOC f-ing Pelosi, with the full approval of the DNC,

and Blue MAGA cries out Hallelujah!


Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

 

Seen on Twitter this week:

https://youtu.be/a4v3x5jMX2c

***

True justice would be if George Floyd were still alive. True justice would be Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo, Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland – and countless others – still being alive. Instead, their lives were lost at the hands of law enforcement largely because in the U.S. heavily armed police officers are the first, last, and only resort in Black communities.

It's time to fully fund true community safety and health in Black communities that helps bring the era of racist and violent policing to an end. Are you with us?

Our country needs to re-examine public safety to save Black lives and reduce racist police violence – and the critical solutions to do so are straightforward: from training civilian professionals as first responders in mental health crises to dealing with low-level offenses through tickets instead of force, arrests, and preventable death. Sign our petition and urge President Biden to use the power and purse strings of the federal government to make sure these proven alternatives are embraced by every city across America.

We know that real justice will only be achieved when no more Black lives are harmed or taken by the police – and the ACLU will fight to make sure that day comes. Add your name today to join the fight.

Thank you for taking action,

ACLU Team

 ***

Mental healthcare should be a right, not a privilege! Demand free mental healthcare for all!
 
Sign Now

It's Mental Health Awareness Month, and in light of the pain, stress, isolation, and grief we've all experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, there couldn't be a more crucial time to highlight this topic. Millions of Americans live with mental health challenges — which is already difficult enough, when not compounded by rampant stigmas and misunderstandings that accompany such experiences. In fact, 1 in every 5 Americans will face a mental health challenge during their lifetime. It's more important than ever that we increase access to treatment for anyone who needs it AND reduce the stigmas that often prevent people from seeking help.

Mental health disorders and challenges come in many forms — and are extremely common. These range from anxiety and depression to substance use to eating disorders and more. In addition to the everyday pain and distress these conditions cause, many of them are also deadly. For example, nearly 50,000 Americans die by suicide each year, making it the second leading cause of death for young Americans.

Clearly, something needs to be done. And our current private health insurance system is obviously not meeting these serious needs. Sign the petition to tell Congress that mental healthcare should be provided as a right — free of charge!

Thank you,


 

Miranda
The Care2 Petitions Team


P.S. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young Americans, claiming nearly 50,000 lives each year. Tell Congress: good mental health is a right, not a privilege.

 ***

 


The Revolution Continues is now in our sixth year taking on the propaganda of the fauxgressives and their friends in the corporate-owned duopoly. We need passionate revolutionaries like you to help us provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can donate a little to the cause, please do so at the Paypal.me link below.

http://paypal.me/camatthews

Thanks for all you do in making the world a better place. Power to the people!

 

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Pointless Violence

 

 

 

Pointless Violence

by C.A. Matthews

Is there any use writing about the impeachment trial that's come and gone in record time? We all knew what the outcome would be before it began, so there's no real need to waste words on it, is there? It's time to concentrate energy on things that matter to us, the working people of this great land.

A recent study determined that forty percent of all Covid-19 deaths in the US could have been prevented. Yes, prevented. There was no need for so many American families to lose so many loved ones. Our alleged public servants simply lied and fudged the numbers instead of spending their time and energy on sharing life-saving information with us in a timely manner so we all could have dealt better with this pandemic and suffered a minimal loss of life.


Our country's ham-fisted handling of the coronavirus threat is a perfect example of pointless violence being committed against the population. Yes, violence as in needless deaths and pointless as in there was absolutely no point in our government treating its citizens so abysmally. If the public's health and well-being had been put ahead of "the economy," or large corporations' profits, we wouldn't have lost over 188,000 human beings needlessly and destroyed the happiness of millions of others.

According to Paul Blest of VICE News:

The Lancet report alleges that Trump’s impact on public health was disastrous even before the pandemic. There were 22,000 extra deaths related to environmental and occupational factors in 2019 than there were in the last year of former President Barack Obama’s presidency, which the commission attributes to federal regulatory rollbacks.

But the report’s authors say the problem goes way beyond just the former president.

“We started out really looking at what Trump had done, and he has certainly done a lot wrong,” Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, another lead author on the report and a distinguished professor at the Hunter College School of Public Health, told VICE News. “But we looked at the health of the American people...and what we found is that it’s been four decades of government failure to support policies that support human health.”

The authors suggest an overhaul in the country’s public health infrastructure to fix the problem. In addition to giving the CDC more tools to fight systemic racism, they recommend transitioning to a Medicare for All system like the one championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The experts are clear. There has been "four decades of government failure to support policies that support human health." There was no point to this violence of ignoring the public's health and safety during this pandemic other than to make wealthy people even wealthier by denying us an adequate public health infrastructure and not fighting systemic racism.

Lee Camp considers the problem--and its solution-- in his opening monologue:

https://youtu.be/ENZqMYzaqvc

Our capitalist system's worst sins could be lessened simply by taxing and then redistributing the billions of dollars sitting in billionaires' bank accounts to the rest of us, leaving these hoarders with ten million dollars each. Our government would have no more excuses for not providing health care or an adequate education free for all Americans once this hoarded money is released into circulation.


Why won't our elected representatives promote this fair and equitable plan to help 99.9% of Americans, especially the most struggling? Could it be career politicians take their orders from these same undertaxed billionaires and their corporations? Could it be they don't care what pointless violence is brought upon us, the workers, as long as they please their corporate paymasters and are rewarded in turn?

As we wait in hope for the long promised $2,000 stimulus check--bargained down to only $1,400--to arrive so we can cover our past due rent, let's not forget how we got into this mess. As we wait for Medicare For All to be passed into law so we no longer go bankrupt whenever huge medical bills arrive, let's not forget who made us suffer the loss of our homes and so many of our loved ones. 

Above all, let's not remain quiet any longer. Let's make our point loud and clear that we're not going to stand for such pointless violence being perpetrated against us ever again. We need to voice our anger to everyone in public office, at all levels of government. The politicians have made it crystal clear they can't be bothered to stand up for our rights, haven't they? It's high time they understood how serious a crime it is to deny life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to the majority.

 

Related Articles:

Here's How Many Deaths We Can Blame On Trump's Terrible Response

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/67794-heres-how-many-covid-deaths-we-can-blame-on-trumps-terrible-response

40 Percent of US Covid Deaths Could Have Been Avoided

https://truthout.org/articles/new-lancet-report-40-percent-of-us-covid-deaths-could-have-been-avoided/ 

 Americans May Need to Wear Masks Throughout 2021

https://truthout.org/articles/biden-indicates-americans-may-need-to-wear-masks-throughout-2021/

 ***

Mask up, Red Shirt! 

(And don't fall for fake news!)

The Revolution Continues is now in our sixth year taking on the propaganda of the fauxgressives and their friends in the corporate-owned duopoly. We need passionate revolutionaries like you to help us provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can donate a little to the cause, please do so at the Paypal.me link below.

http://paypal.me/camatthews

Thanks for all you do in making the world a better place. Power to the people!

***

The Line 3 Pipeline in northern Minnesota would violate Indigenous rights and carry the pollution equivalent to 50 coal power plants.

Fight back and stop the next Keystone XL. Sign the petition: Stop the Line 3 Pipeline!


Bulldozers for the Line 3 Pipeline in Minnesota have arrived to plow through sacred wild rice watersheds, over 800 wetlands, and 200+ bodies of water in Ojibwe treaty territory.

Indigenous water protectors are fighting to protect their land, but the drones are overhead and the police are militarizing.

President Biden has the power to stop this project. He can review the permits granted by Trump and halt Line 3 construction immediately.


This will be the first climate test for his administration and we are making it clear that the Keystone XL, Dakota Access, and Line 3 pipelines must be stopped.

Minnesotans submitted 68,000 public comments against Line 3, they've marched in the streets, attended the hearings and engaged in every step of the process.

Now, over 144,000 Americans have signed a petition to stop Line 3. Will you add your name today?

Thanks for standing up.

-- Progressive Reform Network

 ***

The USPS Board of Governors, which appoints the Postmaster General, has four vacancies.

That means Joe Biden can nominate members who can FIRE Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, and undo his sabotage of the USPS.

We must fill these vacant seats with members who will defend the USPS's universal service obligation, and defend our Postal Service from privatization.


Throughout this pandemic, postal workers have risked their lives as essential employees, while the Postmaster General removed sorting machines and wreaked havoc on delivery times.

If you're as tired as we are of delayed holiday cards and packages in Shangri-La, take action today.


Thanks for taking action.

-- Progressive Reform Network

 ***

From Public Citizen

The United States Senate was not just the jury in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Senators themselves were among the targets of the attack he provoked and the trial was conducted at the scene of the crime.

Yet 43 senators — all Republicans — CHOSE to disregard the obvious truth that Donald Trump incited a violent insurrection in an attempt to overturn the election he lost.

Whether they did this because of political cowardice or because they have joined the Trump cult, these 43 senators have invited further political violence and imperiled the American experiment in democracy.

  • These 43 senators have brought America to the brink of authoritarianism by licensing the use (or at least the threat) of violence by those seeking to achieve or retain political power.
  • These 43 senators will have blood on their hands the next time Trump or some other political extremist provokes an attack on a government building or elected officials.
  • These 43 senators have affirmed their allegiance (or, at best, deference) to the proto-fascist, white-supremacist “politics” personified by Trump.
  • These 43 senators have forsaken any claim to love of country and even the most basic tenets of democracy.
  • These 43 senators have violated their oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
  • These 43 senators will go down in history as political cowards who put rank partisanship before real patriotism.
Join Public Citizen in delivering a message to these 43 senators:

You have opened the door to ongoing political violence and may have set our country on a path toward authoritarianism. You are clearly incapable of feeling shame, but know this: History, if it remembers you at all, will remember you as an apologist for mob violence and a traitor to democracy.

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

For democracy,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen